Ituzaingó 1B Week 11! "When can I be baptized?!"

Yesterday we met Daniel! He is the reference an hermana gave us last week that wants to be baptized! He is so great!!! He came to church yesterday, even though he was sick, and stayed all three hours. After church he wanted to go to Castelar with the hermana that takes care of him to listen to the choir practice. When Principles of the Gospel finished, he raised his hand and asked "When can I be baptized?" Sadly, we couldn't have a lesson with him and sacar una fecha, but we have an appointment tomorrow! He also received a blessing for the sick from the elders yesterday so that's great that he's already having these experiences in his first contact with the missionaries! He understands really well and it just amazes me that he appeared (seemingly) out of nowhere! I know that the Lord prepares miracles and we just have to be patient! 

We also found another new investigator this week! We went to teach our investigator, Francisca, and she told us that her grandson, Levi - who is a former investigator - was home and asked if she could invite him. She was a little worried because he's a little shy, but he was super attentive and participated in the whole lesson! He's super great! We fasted with Marina this week that the divorce of Eduardo can go through so that they can get married and be baptized on the 14th of January! She was super willing to fast with us and after she said that, besides the hunger, she felt really good during the fast! And, with the amazing skills of Hermana Cheever, we chose two of the hottest days of the week to fast ...


-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1B Week ... 10...? "I want to be baptized now!"

This week we received a couple of great references! One of them is from a member in Ituzaingó 3. This member is preparing to leave on his mission to Chile and he started sharing the gospel with his friend's family. Now for us to meet his friend, he's going to invite him to come to church on Sunday and he's going to come to our ward with his friend! 

The other reference is a man named Daniel and he's Jewish! He is a reference from a member in our ward! An hermana came up to us after Relief Society and told us about him. He lives in the geriátrico in our area and he has studied a lot about the LDS population in the US. This hermana started to tell him a little about our basic beliefs and he told her "I want to be baptized!!" She explained that he could meet with us and we could explain about the basic doctrine and that he would need to go to church a few times first to really see what our church is and everything. Well, he didn't like that. He said "No, tell your bishop that I want to be baptized now!" So, long story short, she's going to bring him to church next week and we're going to teach him there and yep, he's going to baptized on hopefully the 17th of December!

We also had a lesson with a member this week with Marina and her son, Emmanuel! One of the counselors in the Primary presidency accompanied us and it was great! We did a little Family Home Evening with them and Ema loved it! The hermana was great as well! She answered some of Marina's questions and she took the initiative in inviting Ema to come to primary! It was really great! 

This week was really great! Thank you all for everything! We're going to go out there and find people to baptize in December!!!

Ituzaingó 1B Week 9! More miracles!

Hola Amigos!

This week Marina came to church!!! She was going to come with her son, Emmanuel, who's 10 years old, but al final the kids of her pareja ended up coming and one of them stayed the night until Sunday so Ema wanted to stay with her and Eduardo. Anyway, Marina loved church!!! She stayed the whole 3 hours because she wanted to! She participated in all the classes and ah she's super buena! I can't wait until the divorce comes through so that they can get married and be baptized! The ward was so good with hermanamiento for her! Everyone was super friendly and of their own initiative went and greeted her and introduced themselves and their family. 

 
We had divisions this week and Hermana Gioppo came to Ituzaingó with me. We worked on being bolder in contacts and it helped a lot! We found 3 nuevos! And one of them is a young man who's 20 years old so if he progresses and is baptized he can go on a mission!! I learned a lot from Hna Gioppo. Usually we don't contact a whole lot because we don't have a whole lot of people outside in our area. She helped me remember that that's the reason we talk with literally EVERYONE. If you see 5 people in one day, you talk to those 5 people and odds are that one of them will at least let you share the basics of lesson one or accept a return appointment.

The gospel's true and God loves you! And I do too!
-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1B Week 8! Miracles!

Hola amigos!

Okay so first off, in case you didn't notice from how many weeks I've been in Ituzaingó, transfers came two weeks ago. For the first time in my mission I stayed with my companion in the area!! My first time having a companion for more than one transfer! It's wonderful and we sure are learning a whole lot together. 

Now for my week,
This week was full of miracles!!! Our investigator, Marina, accepted a fecha for the 14th of January!!!! We put the date so far away because they're still waiting for the lawyer to do his part with the divorce of her pareja. However, we hope that they'll decide to find somewhere else for Eduardo to live until they can get married and then she can be baptized either this month or in December! We're going to talk about that with her when we go over the Law of Chastity again. 

We also found a new investigator that's super great! Her name is Stella Maris and she moved to Ituzaingó from La Costa a month ago. Something like 10 years ago her dad listened to the missionaries and she noticed the difference in him, but she was working two jobs and raising her kids so she never had time to stay and listen when they were at her dad's house and until we rang her doorbell on Friday, no other missionaries had ever come to her house and she always wondered why. She's super honest and open! The problem is that she smokes, so we'll be focusing on that a lot because she accepted a fecha for the 26th of November!!! 

This last week we had our zone conference, but this one was different. President Robertson organized all the zone conferences and came and gave us a special training and the assistants came as well and gave us a little training/introduced us to what the church has this year for Christmas. 

As you all probably know, every year the church makes a video for Christmas with a little theme. Well, this year is a little different. Yes, there's still a video with a theme, but there's an invitation as well. The theme is "Light the World" and the invitation is that we can all light the world this Christmas season. There will be a little calendar for the 25 days leading up to Christmas with how the Savior lit the world and how we can follow in his example. I'm super excited for this and I invite you all to get excited for it too, because it starts the 25th of November. I invite you all as well to start thinking of ways that you can light the world. If everyone puts forth their little bit of light, the world will change! 

Something else that was talked about in our zone meeting was that President Texeira, the President of the area South America South, challenged us all to baptize every weekend in December! Every single companionship of missionaries in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile now has this challenge. I am so excited to see the miracles that come from working our hardest so that in our area, we can four baptisms, 8 in the ward, and 376 in the mission! FAITH CHANGES EVERYTHING!!! 

Anyway, I love you all and hope you know that the gospel is true and God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

PS: If you could pray for my companion and me and our area and the mission that we can reach our goals this month of two baptisms in our area and 94 in the mission and in December of 376 baptisms in the mission, that would be super muchly appreciated.